Increased Gene Expression of LITAF, TNF-α and BCL6 in Endometrial Tissues of Women with Endometriosis: A Case-Control Study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Cell and Molecular Biology Science, Faculty of Basic Sciences and Advanced Technologies in Biology, University of Science and Culture, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Genetics, Reproductive Biomedicine Research Center, Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, ACECR, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Endocrinology and Female Infertility, Reproductive Biomedicine Research Center, Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, ACECR, Tehran, Iran

4 Reproductive Epidemiology Research Center, Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, ACECR, Tehran, Iran

5 Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, School of Biology, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

10.22074/cellj.2024.2022348.1503

Abstract

Objective: Endometriosis, as a common inflammatory chronic disease is characterized by endometrial tissue growth
outside the uterine cavity. It was reported that lipopolysaccharides (LPS) activate a transcription factor called LPSinduced tumor necrosis factor-alpha (LITAF) in macrophages, which induced transcription of cytokine genes such
as tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α). B-cell lymphoma 6 protein (BCL6) is a transcription factor which expression
was increased in endometrial tissues of infertile women with endometriosis. In addition, it was shown that mRNA and
protein of LITAF and BCL6 were inversely related in mature B lymphocytes and B-Cell lymphomas. Accordingly, we
investigated gene expression of LITAF, BCL6 and TNF-α in eutopic and ectopic endometrial tissues of women with
endometriosis compared to the controls.
Materials and Methods: In this case-control study, 10 women with endometriosis (endometriosis group) and 10 women without endometriosis (control group) enrolled after diagnostic laparoscopy. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique was used to quantitatively analyze gene expression. One-Way ANOVA was used for data analysis.
Results: This study showed that LITAF gene expression was significantly higher in ectopic endometrial tissues
compared to the control samples. Expression level of BCL6 gene was significantly increased in the ectopic tissues
of women with endometriosis compared to the control and eutopic samples. Although TNF-ɑ gene expression was
increased in the ectopic lesions compared to the eutopic and control endometrial samples, these differences were not
significant.
Conclusion: The results suggested that over-expression of these inflammatory genes in ectopic endometrial lesions
can be considered as a molecular scenario in pathophysiology of endometriosis by induction of inflammatory cascades and cellular proliferation.

Keywords

Main Subjects

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